Still Waters~ Is your struggle with calling alcoholism a disease tied up with the fact that we (as codependents) have the same treatment program they do? As you said, they put down the bottle and we put down the alcoholic? Finding recovery/remission by using the same treatment program does not mean that something can't be a disease because its treatment is the same as something else. You can use ibuprofen to treat a migraine or to treat inflamed muscles in your back. Same treatment. Both those conditions using the same treatment doesn't lessen the nature of one or the other. We can't base a diagnosis on its treatment, but on its symptoms and effects.